Domenicali resigns as Ferrari boss

Stefano Domenicali has resigned as Ferrari team principal with immediate effect after the team's poor start to 2014.

Ferrari's struggles this year have been the subject of intense scrutiny with two world champions, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, at the helm for the first time since the 1950s, while problems with the F14 T were acknowledged by Domenicali himself at the start of April. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo
recently held a meeting with Alonso to reassure him the team was working in the right direction after he limped home in ninth at Sakhir, with the team languishing in fifth in the constructors'.

Domenicali replaced Jean Todt as Director of Ferrari in 2007 before becoming team principal the following season, and led the team to a constructors' title that year. He failed to repeat that early success however, with Fernando Alonso narrowly missing out on drivers' titles in 2010 and 2012.

Ferrari confirmed the news on Monday morning with Marco Mattiacci, who is currently CEO of Ferrari's North American car sales division, named as Domenicali's successor. In a statement, Domenicali said he shouldered the blame for Ferrari's poor start to the season.

"There are special moments that come along in everyone's professional life, when one needs courage to take difficult and very agonising decisions," said Domenicali. "It is time for a significant change. As the boss, I take responsibility, as I have always done, for our current situation.

"This decision has been taken with the aim of doing something to shake things up and for the good of this group of people that I feel very close to. I hope that very soon, Ferrari will be back where it deserves to be.

"My final words of thanks go to our President, for having always supported me and to all our fans. I only regret that we have been unable to harvest what we worked so hard to sow in recent years."

Montezemolo thanked Domenicali for his service to Ferrari, a team he first joined in 1991.

"I thank Stefano Domenicali, not only for his constant dedication and effort, but also for the great sense of responsibility he has shown, even today, in always putting the interests of Ferrari above all else," Montezemolo said. "I hold Domenicali in esteem and I have watched him grow professionally over the twenty three years we have worked together. I now wish him every success for the future.

"I also want to wish all the best to Marco Mattiacci, whom I know to be a highly regarded manager and who knows the company well. He has accepted this challenge with enthusiasm."